Book Review: The FIVE Dysfunctions of a Team

The FIVE Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni is unlike any other book on leadership or teams or management that I have read.  It only has one chapter at the very end of the book which lists in some detail what the five dysfunctions of a team actually are.  For the rest of the book, Lencioni tells us a leadership fable, a story about a dysfunctional team lead by a new CEO who helps them identify and deal with their dysfunction.  I found this book both unique, interesting and excellent.

The five dysfunctions of a team form a pyramid where by one of the dysfunctions leads to another, usually all stemming from a lack of trust.  I think this is the genius of the book.  You may be able to notice one or two of these problems in your team but as you see how the dysfunctions are related in the fable you start to see how the dysfunctions in your team may actually stem from another dysfunction you couldn't see before.  At least that's what happened for me.

I really think that this is a must have book for anyone in ministry as a large part of our work is making people work together in teams!

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Top Books Every Young Influencer/Leader should read

Here is a list

Take note and get reading!

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Book Review: Help I’m a Frustrated Youth Worker

Help I’m a Frustrated Youth Worker by Steven L. Case has a fairly self explanatory title.  However, I was largely disappointed by this book.  Part of this I think was a clash of Australian and American culture and humour but the main thing that grated for me in this book was I felt he wrote it like he was writing to teenagers.  He made jokes in important places, lots of things were simplified and I thought more could have come from the book.

 

Having said this though, there were some good things in the book.  Dealing with people who always see the negative things, dealing with complaints, dealing with deciding to quit, getting fired, dealing with bad stuff (like death or divorce) and a good chapter on the end about Truths and Myths of Youth Ministry.  I also thought the chapter on complaining (pp27-34) was excellent especially the advice on how to complain to a parent about their annoying child!

 

However despite these many good things I think my general feeling is that this book just missed the mark and I don’t think it is a must have for Youth Workers in churches.

 

2 out of 5 stars!

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No wonder I'm hurting a little on the inside

I just did some number crunching from last years youth camp.  Almost immediately after that youth camp due to circumstances beyond our control 18 people have either finished school, left our church due to a larger family issue, were friends of that family and felt they can't come now that their friend doesn't, moved to another church because they thought it suited them better or dropped off the radar (though they sound friendly and sound like they might come when you ring and talk to them).

All of this has been beyond my control.

All of this has hurt.  Perhaps it shouldn't have.

We only had 30 people on that youth camp (which was awesome for us at the time).  18 people is over 50%

Youth Ministry always requires renewing and rebuilding.  I guess I've realised as Youth Camp comes around this year we are really in a new phase of rebuilding after the initial burst during my first 2 years.

But it hurts and its hard.

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